Wednesday, July 16, 2014

July 2014 updates

Blogging here has been light with most material going on Twitter or DigitalRights.ie instead but I should jot down a few updates you might not otherwise have seen.

I've put together a surveillance library on the DRI site which brings together in one place the key sources on state surveillance in Ireland. It is, as far as I know, the first time this has been done and the process of pulling together all the documents highlighted to me just how opaque and fragmented the Irish surveillance systems are.

DRI has succeeded in its application for amicus status in Max Schrems' challenge to the transfer of personal data to the US under Safe Harbour. Following the decisions in Digital Rights Ireland and Google Spain it is clear that the ECJ is prepared to adopt strong positions on privacy issues and I look forward to being able to contribute to their continued development of the law.

The Internet Content Governance Advisory Group published its report in June. The report is a sensible and balanced assessment which focuses on education and parental empowerment rather than legislative responses. I do have a concern about the recommendation that internet messages should be brought within the scope of the existing law on
"grossly offensive, indecent, obscene or menacing" messages - while the recommendation itself is quite nuanced there is a risk that a clumsy implementation could jeopardise free expression online in the way that Fergal and I outlined before the Oireachtas social media hearings last year.

In a peculiar case, an Irish man was convicted of criminal damage for posting a Facebook update purporting to be from his ex-girlfriend. He was fined €2,000 for posting a status update from her phone stating that she was a "whore" who "would take any offers". This was the first time that the offence of criminal damage to data was used in relation to social media and it is notable in that the sentence imposed was based not on the damage itself but on the reputational harm the damage caused.

Finally, the Irish courts have seen regularconvictions for online harassment, using the existing provisions of the Offences Against the Person Act 1997, raising the question whether the Content Advisory Group recommendation for change is genuinely necessary.